Field of Invention
This invention relates to garment hangers, specifically to such hangers as are used to hang garments meant for the upper body such as shirts, blouses, sweaters, robes, coats, and jackets.
Description of Prior Art
Nearly everyone uses some type of hanger for storing clothing prior to and following its wearing. The garment hanger has been widely used for many years, but its design has changed very little during that time. Basically, the hanger is traditionally a flattened triangle shape with a hook at the top to accommodate the hanging rod found in most closets. The hanger is made of metal, plastic, wood, or a composite of these materials. The traditional hanger is generally manufactured to be a standard size which is meant to accommodate standard-sized clothing items. The flaw in this arrangement is that not everyone wears the same size clothing. In addition, as clothing styles change, such as with currently fashionable oversize clothing, traditional hangers are not able to adapt to these changes.
Inventors have created several adjustable and collapsible garment hangers, but none has adequately solved the problem of adapting to varied clothing sizes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,434 to Ching-Ian Hwang (1990) discloses a collapsible hanger which allows portability but does nothing to solve the problem of varying clothing sizes. This garment hanger does nothing to improve upon the hanging function of the product; rather, it merely attempts to make the hanger more transportable. U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,535 to William J. Hunt (1990) discloses a hanger which is adjustable, but which is meant for lower body garments such as pants or a skirt. This invention does nothing to solve the flaws found in the design of the traditional garment hanger meant for storage of upper body garments. U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,491 to Charles J. Orlando (1970) discloses a hanger which has oppositely extending arms and a garment supporting bar connected between the ends of these arms. This design does not address the problem of adjustability; the device simply provides a positive hold for lower body garments, caused by the weight of the garment itself. U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,492 to Helen Sheba (1970) discloses an adjustable hanger which has both a laterally expandable neck support and laterally expandable side seam shaping supports, but does not address the problem of poor shoulder fit which is the primary cause of stretching and deformation to the shoulder area of knit garments. In addition, Sheba's design lacks simplicity and seems inherently difficult to adjust.
All garment hangers for upper body clothing heretofore known suffer from a number of disadvantages:
(a) If one uses a hanger which is tool large or too small, an item of clothing such as a sweater can be deformed, particularly in the shoulder area, because the entire garment is not being properly supported. Traditional hangers are notorious for mining the shape of knit garments. PA1 (b) As children grow, they wear gradually larger and larger clothing. Hangers meant for young children's clothing cannot be used as the child moves into his or her pre-teen years. Likewise, hangers meant for pre-teen clothing are too small to be used as the child moves into his or her teenage and adult years. Therefor, families often must deal with hangers which are ill-sized for the clothing they wish to store. PA1 (c) Since traditional hangers do not adjust to keep up with the size of a child's clothing as he or she grows, hangers are often discarded once the child no longer wears a garment. This is a very wasteful use of resources. PA1 (d) The most widely used type of hanger today is the wire hanger. This type of hanger is likely to eventually lose its shape due to its inherent flexibility. Once a wire hanger loses its shape, it is discarded. This is a very wasteful use of resources. PA1 (a) to provide a garment hanger which easily adjusts to accommodate a large range of garment sizes and designs. PA1 (b) to provide a garment hanger which adjusts to accommodate knit garments such as sweaters in such a way as to prevent damage through deformation and stretching of the shoulder areas of such garments. PA1 (c) to provide a hanger which has the ability to adapt to changing clothing styles over a long period of time, thus extending the useful life of the product. PA1 (d) to provide a hanger which has adjustable arms for the shoulder areas of garments, which at the same time, provides a dowel (said dowel with or without conventional lower body garment attaching devices such as hooks, clips, etc.) for hanging lower body garments that is not disturbed in any way when adjustments are made to the adjustable arms. PA1 (e) to provide a hanger for children's clothing which will expand with the size of the child's clothing throughout the growing years of the child. PA1 (f) to provide a travel hanger of compact size which can readily be packed in a suitcase, and then quickly expanded to a full standard size when unpacking. PA1 (g) to provide a hanger which is long-lasting and durable. PA1 (h) to provide a hanger which can be constructed of wood, plastic, or metal; or from a combination of these materials. PA1 (i) to provide a hanger, which through long like, durability, and the ability to adapt to changing styles and sizes of clothing, will be much less likely to be discarded and, therefore, less likely to add to current worldwide problems of refuse disposal. PA1 (j) to provide a hanger which can be used by hotels, hospitals, and other institutions to readily adapt to the changing clothing sizes and styles of their clientele.